The Melting Sea (23 page)

Toklo let out a low growl, clearly not convinced.

I wish they would stop and hunt
, Lusa thought longingly.
Then I could take a rest!

Before Toklo could argue with Shila, Kallik touched his shoulder with one paw. “Come on,” she said. “There'll be plenty more seal holes.”

As the bears plodded on, with Shila still in the lead, Lusa noticed that it was getting harder to see into the distance. After a moment, she realized that mist was gathering around them; soon it was so thick that they could barely see a bearlength ahead. Daylight was fading, too, the sun's warmth vanishing; Lusa shivered as the icy fog soaked into her fur.

Shila's pace slowed, and she began glancing around nervously.

“What's the matter now?” Toklo grunted.

The white she-bear let out a snort of brittle laughter. “Nothing. Just that we might fall into a seal hole if we don't watch out.”

Oh, yeah, sure
, Lusa thought, her suspicions of Shila rising.
Like we can't see our own paws!

A few pawsteps farther on, Lusa jumped at the sound of deep bellowing that echoed across the ice. Then she let out her breath in a puff of relief.
It's only white bears
.

But to her surprise, Shila had halted, gazing around her with wide, terrified eyes.
Why is she so scared?
Lusa wondered.
Doesn't she recognize her own kin?

Padding across to Toklo, she murmured into the brown bear's ear. “What's gotten into Shila? Just what is going on?”

Toklo shook his head; he didn't reply, but his eyes were wary as he looked at the white she-bear.

“I think we should stop and rest, now that we can't see,” Kallik said. “There's no point in walking around in circles.”

Staring through the foggy twilight, Lusa spotted a heap of snow a few bearlengths away. Yakone had seen it, too, and led the way over to it. He and Kallik began scraping out a rough den.

“I wish we'd hunted earlier,” Toklo muttered to Lusa. “It's too late now.”

“Me too,” Lusa responded.
I'm so hungry that I'd even be thankful for a few mouthfuls of seal!

Her belly was rumbling as she snuggled into the den between Toklo and Kallik, but she was so exhausted that her hunger couldn't keep her awake. Even her growing anxiety about Shila faded as she lost consciousness.

Sunlight glittered on the ice as Lusa raced across it, beside Toklo and Kallik. Ahead of them, Ujurak was running: He kept changing shape from a brown bear to a white and then to a black bear. Then his fur dissolved into feathers and he lifted off the ground in goose shape, letting out a harsh, lonely cry. But just as Lusa began to despair of keeping pace with his wings, he glided down to the surface of the ice again. His form swelled and grew darker; antlers sprouted from his head, and he clicked off across the ice on the narrow hooves of a caribou. His strides lengthened and grew faster until he was only a dot on the horizon.

“Ujurak, don't leave us!” Lusa cried out.

The dot began to grow bigger again, but as Lusa drew closer, she saw that Ujurak had changed again. Now he waited for them in the shape of a flat-face cub, covered in bright pelts. The cub's mouth opened, but instead of the thin cry of a flat-face, the deep growl of a bear came from his jaws.

Lusa flinched. “What's wrong?” she asked.

Ujurak growled again, louder this time, and Lusa's eyes flicked open. At first she thought she was still staring into the chilly fog. Then as she became fully awake she saw that the sun was up; the whiteness in front of her took shape, and she realized that their den was surrounded by white bears.

Six of them! Spirits, they're big...
.

Her friends were already awake, staring in dismay at the hostile glares of the newcomers. As Lusa tried to struggle to her paws, Toklo hissed at her, “Stay still!”

Obeying him, Lusa let her gaze travel from one white bear to the next.
Hang on
, she thought.
I recognize that one.…
It's Salik
,
from Great Bear Lake! And that one … Manik
.

“Hey, Iqaluk!” It was Salik who spoke, nudging the white bear next to him. “A brown bear and a black bear. What are
they
doing on the ice?”

“They've no business here,” Iqaluk growled.

Iqaluk
… Lusa recognized that name, too. Her heart sinking, she realized that they had been found by the group of young males who'd been terrorizing the other bears who had gathered at the lake, and had even stolen a black bear cub from the forest.

But that means …

Lusa scanned the rest of the bears, her heart pounding. Beside her, Kallik was quivering like a leaf about to fall off its branch. Following her gaze, Lusa gulped.

At the same moment, Kallik gasped, “Taqqiq!” Leaping forward, her voice full of joy, she yelped, “I found you!”

Taqqiq looked stunned, his eyes bulging as he took a step back.

Before he could speak, Iqaluk shoved Kallik aside. “What are you doing, seal-brain?” he snarled.

“That's my brother,” Kallik retorted, standing up to the huge male. “And this is our home! Don't you remember me, from Great Bear Lake?”

“I remember you,” Salik sneered, pushing his way forward. “You tried to persuade Taqqiq to go on some fish-headed journey to a place that doesn't exist. Luckily, he came to his senses and came back.”

“But we did find the Endless Ice!” Kallik protested. “It's true!”

“What are you doing back here, then?” Manik demanded.

As Kallik faced the male bears, Lusa heard a whimper of fear behind her and realized that Shila was still cowering inside the den. “Are you okay?” Lusa asked, ducking back to her side.

Shila shivered. “Don't make them angry!” she pleaded. “Let's just go.”

Lusa heard Salik's voice outside the den. “Get out of here. This is
our
territory.”

“Yeah.” That was Taqqiq. “I never asked you to come find me. Like Salik says, this is our place.”

“We have every right to be here,” Toklo growled.

“I don't think so,
brown
bear,” another of the newcomers snarled. “What's the matter, did you get lost?”

“Make it easy for yourselves,” Manik said. “Leave before we make you.”

“We mean it, Kallik,” Taqqiq added. “I don't want you to get hurt.”

Lusa backed out of the den again to see Kallik still facing the white bears, with Yakone at her shoulder. “White bears don't have territories,” she argued. “You're just trying to push us around.”

“We have territories now.” Salik pushed his snout into Kallik's face. “Or haven't you noticed that there's not enough ice to go around? Challenge us if you want,” he added smugly, “but the bears we found here before discovered that was a very bad idea.”

For the first time Lusa noticed that the pile of snow where they had sheltered had once been a den. It had been crushed into destruction by gigantic paws with sharp claws. In the growing light of morning she made out blood spattered on the snow.

No …

Her heart thudding even harder, Lusa leaned in toward Toklo, feeling very small and vulnerable.

Without warning, Manik suddenly leaped forward, out of the group of his friends. “You want to fight?” he challenged Toklo.

“Just try me!” Toklo snapped, lunging at Manik and landing a hard blow on the side of his head.

The white bear paused for a heartbeat, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe that a brown bear could hit so hard. While he hesitated, Toklo lowered his head and crashed into the white bear's side, knocking him off his paws. The two bears wrestled together, rolling over and over on the ice.

Lusa winced at the sight of Manik's powerful claws as they raked across Toklo's shoulder. Anger began to rise inside her as she saw the gleam of enjoyment in the other white bears' eyes—even Taqqiq's—as they watched.

“That's it, Manik!” Salik called out. “Show him what's what!”

“Flatten him!” Iqaluq snarled.

Lusa could hardly bear to watch. Toklo was smaller than the white male; Manik soon held him pinned down on the ice, though Toklo was pummeling at Manik's stomach with his hindpaws.

“Stop them!” Kallik shrieked at Taqqiq, shoving him in the shoulder. “You know Toklo is my friend! How can you be like this?”

Taqqiq pulled away from her. “Leave me alone,” he growled. “You don't know anything about me now.”

Kallik gasped in disbelief, her stricken gaze fixed on her brother. Lusa felt desperately sorry for her.

“That's enough.” To Lusa's surprise, Salik stepped forward, thrusting himself between Toklo and Manik. “Save your strength,” he added as the white bear struggled to his paws, shaking snow off his pelt with a thin rain of blood. “They'll leave now—won't you?” He swung around and fixed Toklo with a challenging gaze.

Before Toklo could reply, Lusa stepped forward, fury giving her the courage to confront the huge white male. “Yes, we'll leave now,” she said. “But you'll see us again, I promise.”

She turned her back with dignity as the white males burst out into snorts and snuffles of laughter. Toklo got to his paws and joined her, and together they led the way across the ice, with Kallik, Yakone, and Shila following.

Kallik glanced back over her shoulder as she moved away, her gaze full of sorrow as she looked at Taqqiq, but she said nothing.

“Keep out of our way, if you know what's good for you!” Iqaluk bellowed after them.

Once the white males had been left well behind, Shila ran to catch up with Toklo. “I told you not to make them angry,” she said.

Toklo halted and turned to face Shila; his gaze was stern. “You've met those bears before, haven't you?” he asked. “Now are you going to tell us what's going on?”

Shila couldn't meet Toklo's gaze. “You saw what they did to the den back there,” she began. “They've been doing that kind of thing for a while. They smash up dens and steal food, and they try to make other bears hand over their catch, or risk being hurt in a fight.”

Lusa could tell that as Shila spoke, Toklo was growing angrier and angrier, a low growl coming from deep within his throat. Kallik was staring at Shila in horror.

“They're even worse than they were at Great Bear Lake!” she exclaimed. “And there are more bears involved now.” Lowering her voice to a shamed whisper, she added, “Taqqiq is still one of them.”

“Tell us
everything
,” Toklo demanded, fixing Shila with a look harder than the ice.

Shila swallowed nervously. “Those bears attacked the den where my mother and brothers were sleeping,” she began. “I tried to fight them off, but I couldn't. Then my mother, Sakari, made me go far away to hunt for food, and I got stuck on some broken ice. I ended up onshore, and that's when the flat-faces caught me.”

“And then we found you,” Lusa put in.

Shila nodded. “My mother and brothers could be dead by now,” she went on, her voice rising in panic. “Tonraq and Pakak are too young to be out of the BirthDen all the time!”

“Calm down.” Yakone stepped forward and touched Shila's shoulder with his muzzle. “Getting worked up won't help.”

“Yakone's right.” Lusa pressed up against Shila on her other side. “Calm down and we'll decide what to do.”

“Yes,” Toklo added. “We're here now. We can help.”

Shila stared at him incredulously. “What can you do? You're not even a white bear!”

Toklo exchanged a glance with Lusa. “Maybe that's exactly what you need,” he said.

Raising her head, Kallik let her
gaze rest on the starry sky, the spirits thick as ice crystals strewn across the darkness. Her companions were all asleep in the shelter of another heap of snow.
Probably another destroyed den …